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Bryan O. '07▾

Bryan O. '07

Course 2 / 20

I almost set my room on fire once when I tried to power a robot from an
electrical socket. 10 years later, they admitted me to MIT. Bryan's my
name and science is my game. I'm currently a senior at MIT majoring in
Course 2 and minoring in BME; that's MIT-speak for Mechanical Engineering
(2) and... read more »

So yeah, I had decided about MIT the instant I got my acceptance letter (deferred, got in regular Woohoo!) or shortly thereafter. After talking over all the awesome reasons that I wanted to go MIT even over the other prestigious institutions I'd been accepted to (awesome engineering schools in NYC, Pittsburgh, and Houston ... you figure it out), I proceeded from the hotel I stayed at Wed. night to CPW registration. I was delighted to find Matt Mcgann and Ben Jones waiting at the table for me... and any other prefrosh. No matter, I was on a mission.

Since Matt Mcgann was occupied on the phone at the moment, I talked to Ben Jones. I proceeded to ask if the admissions office was still open so that I could give them my MIT Reply Form, and wait, couldn't I just give it to him, would he take it? Now??? Why yes, Ben congenially and ecstatically answered. "That's awesome! I guess we don't have to work on you this weekend." Well, right he was. When Matt Mcgann saw my awesome "nerd-tastic" Calculus shirt (Coke ripoff, said enjoy calculus, check Friday Liveblog), I knew that MIT was the place for me. Now to explore.

I started off by battling the cold/raining/sleeting weather that outright broke my subpar Houston umbrella. (It had worked for going on 8 years in Houston and didn't stand one day in Boston, go figure). So, there I was with the better half of my umbrella that tried to fly away on a quest to Random Hall, where the was word of Truffle-making. When I finally got there after what should have been little more than a 5 minute walk I was glad to find a warm place to dry off. I met some fairly cool people there, but it was a little intimidating after hearing about all the insane crazy acamedic feats that my peers had conquered. I couldn't help asking myself if I was really intelligent enough to go to MIT. But Marilee Jones never makes mistakes, right...Right???

I was however, meant to find some more awesome people that spoke less of academia and were willing to listen to whatever random story came to my mind while waiting to play 3D twister, which was awesome. I have to admit the resident Randomites (people living at Random House) were a little, well, random, but very cool and welcoming. I started to feel a bit better.

The weekend went on as I struggled to find stuff to do. Solace came in the form of a very pretty asian girl who will probably go to Harvard, despite CPW awesomeness (Oh well...) Some of her friends and I hung out that night and even attended some parties that night. "Parties???" You may be thinking. "at MIT??!" Yeah, I was pretty surprised to. But... there was enough loud music energy drinks and dancing to go around. I tried to talk to a bunch of different people and met some pretty cool people at Skull House, and even some Boston University Undergrads that claimed, "Oh yeah, MIT has the best parties. We love coming here because MIT totally has the best looking guys." Hark, could this mean great things in Kevin Rustagi's future. I would endeavor to believe so.

So yeah, went back to Next House, which was cool but very far from the center of campus to sleep. Of course not until after talking to my host Andrew Bishara until 4 AM about random stuff, including the arcade project that my friends and I worked on in January. He gave me some comfort that classes were difficult but not impossible.

Oh yeah, and Marilee Jones' opening statements were awesome. Some kids laughed when she exclaimed that there was a high tolerance for failure. Her statements about how MIT encourages invention, creation, and freethinking made my head spin with excitement for the oncoming 4 years. The Logs, one of MIT's premiere a capella groups performed and that was awesome as well.

The next day was important. I had goals to accomplish because so far I hadn't talked to anybody on the ski team or inquired about where to put my drumset and/or another arcade that my friends and I are building/overhauling/re-engineering this summer. My prospects brightened at the activities fair where I met the crew people who seemed to be almost too excited about the fact that I was over 6 foot and under 140 lbs. "Yeah, dude, you don't need any athletic experience at all. Just put down your e-mail and height and weight." A little strange... But I did find the ski people and they were very encouraging. I talked the team captain and after telling him my level of experience and expressing my zeal for the program he was very enthusiastic about my joining the team (I'm not rich, I just have close family that live in Colorado). So that was cool. I also found out that if I had an idea for an activity while at MIT that all I had to do was write it up and MIT would probably throw some cash my way to get it started. I also learned that there were several faith-based groups at MIT, which is cool b/c I've been pretty involved with my church throughout high school. And I talked to the Logs who were totally into me trying out. (I'm a drummer turned singer turned guitarist). And the dramashop said I didn't even have to take the class to submit my own One act play that they would put on (It's always been a dream of mine to write a play.)

So I'm thinking, awesome, " Activities, Check!" The Korean Karate Club even showed me how, and I did, break a board. Way cool.That day I also met this awesome girl, Allie, from Wisconsin and I hung out with her and some friends she made. We even had an opportunity to go on an underground tour of MIT, we'll just call it a Citrus tour to protect the innocent. The funny thing was a bunch of us were all just waiting there and I thought these crazy kids were hacking us. Allie and I saw a bunch of kids up on one of the balconies so we decided to "role play" I approach one of the guys and say, "Haha we got those kids..." He's like, who are you, and I told him something like I'm Kevin didn't Jim tell you about me. The guy responds with, "Are you a CALTECH student." I couldn't believe it. How crazy! This guy thought I was an outsider trying to hack them, when I thought he was hacking us prefrosh. Anyway it turned out to be just fine, though it ended early due to some searchlights on MIT's Great dome... I wonder what could've happened...

This was cool though because it gave Allie and I a chance to check out this hot tub deal, which was awesome. A bunch of kids and I hung out there until the wee hours of the morning and they let us sleep in this fishing net that they had hung from the ceiling. (We also could've slept in beds, but the fishing net was HUGE).
Btw, the food was all free after Friday morning because all of the Frats across the river were hosting free meals. Of all of them, my favorites were Zeta Psi, and Skull House (can't remember the name) Allie and I walked back across the bridge 4 hours from the time when we went to sleep at Tep (A coed living group, also across the river) to take our first showers since arriving at MIT, Ewww! What can I say, we were living the college life. OK, so at this point in writing this I'm pretty sure I mixed up the events of Friday and Saturday in the last two paragraphs, but you know what, I don't think it makes that much of a difference. Just know that the weekend was a blur (Woohoo! - music reference) of awesomeness.

So what I do know is that Eddie from Zeta Psi showed me around Zeta Psi later that night and they had some awesome stuff like artwork painted on the doors (they're on campus and not a historical landmark like many of the Frats across the river) and even stadium seating built into one of the rooms. His like many other frats and some of the dorms had music rooms for me to put my drumset and speakers and guitar/amp respectively. (I totally want to have a rock band at MIT) and he even found the perfect place for my arcade that has a bajillion games on it.

Before that of course, I had seen a few last awesome events, the closing remarks/ Logs performing and I got really wrecked at Texas Hold 'Em at one of the Frats. Which is wierd because I'm from Texas, for Pete's sake. That evening we went to see battle of the bands. It was pretty rad/throwed/insert synonym to awesome of your choice. Ben Jones' band was awesome, as were the rest. And, I must explain something. In the south, when there is a point of uncertainty or potential encore, someone in the crowd yells out 'Freebird!' in reference to the famous Lynyrd Skynyrd song, calling for it's musical reiteration. Well, I was trying to teach this one girl from New York how to do it and when the opportune moment was, when I yelled it out before Marilee Jones came on stage. Some thought it was funny (either out of understanding or mere spontaneity) but she started singing You Can't Always Get What You Want and it all melted away as us and the Cartoony Beaver Mascot Tim swayed his arms to the music with us. He had also crowd surfed to a metal song earlier and that was by far one of the funniest and most surreal things I have ever witnessed in person. So the last band was a classic rock type band along the lines of Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) and they as the closer played their three songs and wondered aloud if they had more time. Two beats passed of silence and then without warning or planning or knowledge of each other me and two others yelled out the call for "Freebird!" I couldn't believe it! They had sensed it too. The perfect moment. Well, the band played a half-done rendition of Sweet Home Alabama that I thoroughly enjoyed (They kind of accidentally repeated the 2nd verse instead of doing the 1st and 2nd, and they didn't really finish the song.)
But otherwise I said my goodbyes at Zeta Psi later on and caught a cab at 1:30 AM back to my airport hotel in the interest of getting out early because of the oncoming storm.

Well, if you have read this far, I must commend you for your dilligence, patience, and ginormously long attention span.

And of course, as with a good pizza, I always save the best for last,

So I will leave you with this thought that Allie McKenzie '11 shared with before the Battle of the Bands.

Take it as you will, it is not meant to offend anyone but is merely poking fun at the general quirkiness that I appreciate and love in MIT students.

And Bryan, if you do, thank you for publishing this pearl of wisdom.

At MIT, so far as relationships go, this statement mostly rings true:

The Odds are Good, but the Goods are Odd.

What a lovely epanelepsis, at least I think that's what it is.

So, with that I step out of the limelight, at least until next semester (mad scientist laugh). Thank you for listening. Please e-mail me @ [email protected] if you have any questions. And I am totally on facebook complete with pics of my crazy arcade project. Matt Mcgann:" You gave a pinball machine to a nursing home?" Lol.

I love you all and will see you in the fall. hey, that rhymes. -Kevin.

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

"some Boston University Undergrads that claimed, "Oh yeah, MIT has the best parties. We love coming here because MIT totally has the best looking guys."
Not sure if I like the sound of this. Does this mean MIT girls are side-lined?

Posted by: anon. on April 22, 2007

is it just me, or does anyone else find the whole "first post" stuff completely pointless and annoying?

Posted by: anon on April 22, 2007

Where are the pics!?!?!?!

Everybody did such different things during CPW! None of the other people that blogged did the same things I did, which only goes to show how cool MIT is :D

Posted by: milena '11 on April 22, 2007

kevin class of two thousand eleven rhymes too!

Posted by: 0 on April 22, 2007

No, this most certainly does not mean the girls are sidelined! I happened to meet some very friendly and good looking girls. Also, my friends took pictures, but I don't have them. Sorry. Thanks for the reading all ~2000 words of my account.
Oh hey, I just finished reading Bringing Down the House, The story of how 6 MIT Undergrads took Vegas for Millions and it was pretty awesome.

Posted by: Kevin R '11 on April 22, 2007

haha, i remember this kid. you were the one cheating at 3d twister! (you can't lose if you can sit down....you can't fall at all)

Posted by: anonymous on April 22, 2007

My umbrella totally broke too! I'd also had it for years with no problems, but in Buahston it was out of its element...

Posted by: Jing on April 22, 2007

I was not cheating! I honestly didn't know the rules, but that does kind of make sense, but it was 3D Twister, where the rules don't make sense and anything goes...I'm pretty sure there's a copyright infringed tagline in there somewhere.

Posted by: Kevin R '11 on April 22, 2007

btw, I'm pretty sure I now hold the record for longest blog entry ever. except for those silly question omnibus'. they don't count.

Posted by: Kevin R '11 on April 22, 2007

Probably longest title too, Kevin.

Oh, and to respond to Anon up there - without a doubt, the "first post" thing is pointless. My first post was more of a spoof than anything; but maybe I'm just not very funny?

I really enjoyed your CPW journal! It sounds like you made the most of the weekend. Now, to find that cute asian girl at Harvard next year. :p

Posted by: Hanhan on April 23, 2007

Yeah, I told my friends in theatre class and they thought that truism was pretty hilarious, and, like I said, it goes for all relationships. We were mostly referring to this couple that we thought were actually making fun of emo dancing though they may have actually been doing it. Either way, when I wrote on my hand "The ODDS!" and showed it to Allie in the middle of that whole loud semi-mosh deal, the semi-inside joke was complete. Hmmm... What exactly makes an inside joke inside? Is there a limit to the # of people that can know it or is there a specific point where it becomes common knowledge???

Posted by: Kevin R '11 on April 23, 2007

Buahston! Mua guess where I'm mwoovin?! Buahston!

Posted by: KZShock! (an alter ego) on April 23, 2007

We totally talked about how you revamp/rebuild arcade games, and I do the same with pinball machines.

We should totally team up.

Posted by: Karin '11 on April 23, 2007

it's okay Kevin. i forgive you for cheating at 3d twister. it was all for fun, right?

i wonder what other games would wildly change if they became 3d. checkers? snakes and ladders? connect four? the possibilities are endless!

Posted by: anonymous on April 23, 2007

Not sure if I like the sound of this. Does this mean MIT girls are side-lined?

I've had guys at MIT stop talking to me after they realized I went to MIT.

Just sayin'

Posted by: Christina on April 23, 2007

Wow, crazy post Kevin! It was awesome to get your perspective on CPW... Bryan, thanks for posting it!

Posted by: Daniel '12 on April 23, 2007

"Just know that the weekend was a blur (Woohoo! - music reference) of awesomeness."

It's a parklife at MIT.

Posted by: Isabel on April 23, 2007

That's terrible that people would stop talking to you after finding out you were going to MIT, They obviously couldn't handle your awesomeness and/or they just weren't nearly as awesome and must have felt embarassed at their lack of understanding and/or awesomeness.

Karin '11, Teaming up would be awesome. I have this great idea for an Arcade NPO, but I don't think I could handle switching to the dark side of pinball.
P.S. My arcade system can do pinball games but I bet your pinball game can't do arcade games. But seriously team retro game building is awesome.

Btw, what's parklife.

And how are you Daniel '12, unless you're enrolled in a 5 year program...

Posted by: Kevin R '11 on April 23, 2007

^Parklife is another Blur song.

Posted by: Isabel on April 23, 2007

He could be Daniel '12 for one of two reasons - he's admitted and is taking a year off, or he's a junior who's just REALLY excited about the prospect of getting in.

By the way, Kev, the fraternity I was in (Theta Xi) had an arcade system you would've just loved. It was actually only a PC-based emulator, but they'd hooked it up to a vintage arcade-machine frame, so it basically felt like you were playing all your favorite NES games in a classic arcade.